Meh, who needs technique?

Yesterday's class was a lot of fun. Instead of starting off with teaching techniques, our instructor had us do some positional drilling. First, we did the Human Backpack drill, which had one guy sitting on the mat, and then his training partner would sit behind him, put his hooks in and hold on to his shoulders. The goal for the guy on the back was to keep the back and get a submission if possible. The guy on bottom simply tried to get out from under the back mount. Next position we drilled was mount, which is just what it sounds like. You start off laying on your back, with a guy sitting on your chest. He tries to get a submission while you try to escape out from under mount. Last position was guard. By this point, a blue belt had joined the class, so me and another white belt took turns trying to pass his guard. Which is to say, we took turns getting swept and subbed. I think I actually managed to surprise the blue belt a little when his first sweep didn't work, but after that I was pretty much swept any time he felt like it.

After this, the Instructor showed us two techniques, both were sort of how to get to better position after somebody passes your guard. They were both a little over my head, to be honest, although I think I got a decent handle on the first one, in isolation. I just don't think I could actually pull it off during rolling. I guess that's to be expected, since I've been attending class for a whopping two weeks. After the technique portion of class, which was way shorter than usual, we got to rolling. I rolled with another new white belt, which was nice. It felt nice to not get schooled as badly as I did on Tuesday. Next round I rolled with one of the bigger white belts, who's been doing this for a while. Again, I concentrated on trying to relax and breathe. He choked me once or twice, and I seem to recall getting armbarred at one point, too. I felt pretty good about my performance, though. I just tried to work the stuff I know. I know one guard pass, so I keep trying to get it. If they decide to play open guard, I just pretend that I opened it and work that pass from there. The big guy got mount on me at one point, and I was able to bridge and roll out of it. It wasn't done exactly as we were taught, but I think I caught him off guard there as he was trying for a choke.

After that, I kind of hung out and caught my breath for a little while. Eventually, the older guy white belt asked me if I wanted to roll, and we rolled for what seemed like an hour. In reality, it was probably 10 or 15 minutes. I worked a lot on trying to keep my base under me in guard and not get swept, but when he started chaining sweeps, over I went. He did compliment me on my base, which he said is common in people with a wrestling background. He showed me a couple tips to make it even harder for me to get swept, which was cool. I tapped to a triangle at one point even though it wasn't locked in, just because I didn't know how to get out of it. He then showed me a couple options to try to get out.

Overall, it was a really fun class. I'm starting to feel very much at home there. The other students are awesome. They're always willing to help you out and show you where you're going wrong. The Instructor is very friendly and easy to approach with questions.